Henry Wilson

Henry Wilson (16 February 1812-22 November 1875) was Vice President of the United States from 4 March 1873 to 22 November 1875, succeeding Schuyler Colfax and preceding William A. Wheeler. He previously served as a US Senator from Massachusetts (R) from 31 January 1855 to 3 March 1873, succeeding Julius Rockwell and preceding George S. Boutwell.

Biography
Jeremiah Jones Colbath was born in Farmington, New Hampshire on 16 February 1812, and his lack of closeness to his family led to him changing his name to "Henry Wilson" after a biography of a Philadelphia teacher. While working as a cobbler, he became a skilled orator through his involvement in the Natick Debating Society, and he decided to commit himself to the cause of emancipation after witnessing African-American families being separated as slaves. In 1840, Wilson campaigned for Whig presidential nominee William Henry Harrison, blaming the Democrats for the Panic of 1837. He went on to serve in the state legislature during the 1840s, and, in 1848, he was a founder of the Free Soil Party. He served as party chairman before and during the 1852 presidential election, and he worked diligently to build an anti-slavery coalition, which came to include the Free Soilers, anti-slavery Democrats, New York Barnburners, the Liberty Party, anti-slavery Know Nothings, and Conscience Whigs. In 1854, he helped to found the Republican Party in line with his anti-slavery coalition.

Wilson served in the US Senate from 1855 to 1873, and he was affiliated with the Radical Republicans during the American Civil War. He assisted Abraham Lincoln's administration with the organization and oversight of the US Army and US Navy, and he authored bills that outlawed slavery in Washington DC and incorporated African-Americans in the Union civil war effort in 1862. After the Civil War, he supported the Radical program for Reconstruction. In 1872, Wilson was elected Vice President as the running mate of the incumbent president Ulysses S. Grant, but his effectiveness was limited after a debilitating stroke in 1873, and he died in 1875.